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The Edmonton Red Jam Slam 2013

Día y hora: 
Sunday, May 12, 2013 - 01:00 - 06:30
lugar: 
The Canadian Native Friendship Centre
Dirección: 
11728 95 street, Edmonton, AB, CDN

Over a five hour event May 12 at the Canadian Native Friendship Centre in Edmonton on 11728-95 Street from 1pm to 6:30 pm. A event coordinated by Carrie Lawrence and Donald Morin under the National Community and Campus Radio Association, and produced by Red Jam Slam founder Gunargie O*Sullivan.

The Edmonton Red Jam Slam, May 2013

Día y hora: 
Sunday, May 12, 2013 - 01:00 - 06:30
lugar: 
Canadian Native Friendship Centre
Dirección: 
11728 95 street, Edmonton, AB, CDN
The Edmonton Red Jam Slam is a five hour event May 12 at the Canadian Native Friendship Centre in Edmonton on 11728-95 Street from 1pm to 6:30 pm.

Cairn Wasn’t Prepared for Offshore oil Spill

Cairn wasn’t prepared for offshore oil spill near Greenland: report

"A significant underestimate of the flow rate of oil into the marine environment in a worst-case blowout scenario"

NUNATSIAQ NEWS

The Ocean Rig Corcovado, drilling about 180 kilometres offshore Nuuk, drilled down 4,847 metres in 2011, having encountered “minor hydrocarbon shows.” (FILE PHOTO)

Just how prepared was Cairn Energy PLC was for its drilling for oil offshore western Greenland in 2011?

That’s what Inuit Circumpolar Council-Greenland and Oceans North Canada hoped to learn in a third-party technical review report they recently commissioned.

ICC and Oceans North say their report, released last week, shows there’s a need for stronger independent scrutiny and more public participation in the regulatory process governing offshore drilling.

“Although the technical review showed that indeed some best practices were followed, there are still an overall need for strengthening the procedures and practices,” ICC said in an introduction to the report.

In the spring of 2012, ICC and Oceans North Canada commissioned the independent third-party technical review of Cairn Energy’s 2011 offshore oil exploration drilling program in western Greenland.

In 2011, Cairn completed the second year of its offshore drilling program there.

But by the end of that season, Cairn said it had not found commercial quantities of oil and gas, and that they would do no offshore drilling in Greenland waters in 2012.

ICC-Greenland concluded that this “pause” in exploratory drilling provided a chance to review aspects of the completed project and to look at strengths and weaknesses in the planning and execution of the project.

The resulting report concludes there appeared to be weaknesses in Cairn’s oil spill prevention and contingency plan for 2011, including what seemed to be “a significant underestimate of the flow rate of oil into the marine environment in a worst-case blowout scenario.”

The review by investigator, Susan Harvey, who has more than 25 years experience as a petroleum and environmental engineer, also assessed the drilling project in comparison to other Arctic countries.

“This report demonstrate that there is a pressing need to open the environmental impact assessment process to third parties (citizens and civil society organizations). When it comes to reducing the risk of environmental damage caused by offshore drilling, a more transparent process can only result in stronger protection of our marine environment,” said ICC.

The final report “Project Review: Cairn Energy’s 2011 Offshore Drilling in West Greenland,” now posted online, also provides a detailed account of the information provided to ICC-Greenland by Greenland officials.

“More importantly, the report provides a detailed account of what has not been provided,” ICC said.

That’s because much of the information needed to review the safety of the offshore drilling program was not made available to the reviewer, ICC said.

This lack of information, despite meetings, correspondence and formal requests, frustrated ICC-Greenland’s attempts “to become more informed and to participate in this conversation about the future of renewable and non-renewable natural resources.”

Jens-Erik Kirkegaard Greenland’s minister of natural resources defended Cairn in a recent interview in Greenland’s Sermitsiaq AG newspaper.

“Cairn Energy had a response that was larger than the worst-case scenario they had described. Aircraft and ships were ready to intervene if the worst should happen,” said Kirkegaard.

Although Kirkegaard rejected that part of the criticism, he said welcomed ICC’s initiative to analyze preparedness for an oil spill.

“You can always make things better, and so do we, among other things by working together with associations and organizations and talk about how we can make things better. We are a small people, and we need all the strength to make things even better,” he said.

Kirkegaard also promised to make things more open and have a better dialogue with the public.

To that end, Greenland’s home rule government and ICC have agreed to meet regularly for discussions on environmental issues.

 

www.nunatsisaqonline.ca

Federal Minister Sends Arctic Naval Facility Plans Back to DND

Nunavut Impact Review Board needs more information to do environmental review

CBC News

Apr 19, 2013

The federal minister of Northern Development has sent the plans for the proposed Nanisivik naval facility back to the Department of National Defence for more work.

 

Minister Bernard Valcourt said the military must clarify parts of the proposal, and then re-submit it to Nunavut regulators.

 

The Nunavut Impact Review Board said in a January letter to the minister that it didn't have enough information to do a proper environmental review of the proposed project near Arctic Bay, Nunavut.

 

The NIRB's letter described a series of delays in the project's environmental screening process that began in 2009, two years after plans for the Nanisivik facility were first announced.

 

The letter says the NIRB has been frustrated in its efforts to get more information from National Defence.

 

"Despite repeated requests and several opportunities to do so, essential information has not been provided and significant information gaps in the project proposal remain," the letter says.

 

The original plan was for a large Arctic port and re-fuelling facility at the old Nanisivik mine site on north Baffin Island, but last year National Defence decided to scale the project back to keep costs down.

 

The federal government has budgeted more than $100 million for the project.

 

NIRB's letter to the minister

 

www.cbc.ca

 

Asbestos Found at Agnico-Eagle Mine

Asbestos still an issue at Nunavut gold mine: Agnico-Eagle

Second-most hazardous form of asbestos found at Meadowbank mine

SAMANTHA DAWSON

Nunavut April 19, 2013

Amosite asbestos is considered to be one of the more hazardous forms of the material.

More than a year after Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. first detected naturally-occurring asbestos found at its Meadowbank gold mine near Baker Lake, the company continues to deal with asbestos at the mine site.

Asbestos is often associated with gold-rich rocks.

The problem is that asbestos is also linked to a variety of lung ailments and cancers, mainly affecting those who have worked or used asbestos in their everyday jobs for many years, according to the Mesothelioma and Asbestos Awareness Center.

After finding asbestos in samples taken from the mill’s crusher plant, “we took this issue very seriously and immediately notified regulators,” Norm Ladouceur, the mine’s health and safety superintendent, said at the recent Nunavut Mining Symposium in Iqaluit.

But Agnico Eagle was first “caught off guard” when the asbestos was found, he said.

Since asbestos was discovered at the Meadowbank mine, 1,400 dust samples have been taken

The type of asbestos found is called amosite, the second-most hazardous form of asbestos, the Mesothelioma and Asbestos Awareness Center says.

However, not all samples at the mine show traces of asbestos, Ladouceur said.

Drillers and truck drivers at Meadowbank appear to be more at risk to asbestos exposure than anyone else, he said.

Now, “dust swipes” are taken from their equipment several times a day.

All 1,000 or so workers on site also wear disposable coveralls and slippers over their boots to prevent the spread of any asbestos dust to non-affected areas.

Workers in the mill and crusher plant also take off their protective gear before they leave those areas and use specialized “hepa” vacuums to clean their work clothes.

That’s because mill remains the place where most of the asbestos has been found.

“It’s a constant barrage of dust,” Ladouceur said about the atmosphere there.

A full-time industrial hygienist now works at the mine site, and engineering controls have been put in place in the crusher plant to improve airborne dust levels, he said.

While dust contamination remains an issue, trying to tell when dust contains asbestos can be a difficult task because “it’s very sporadic — it’s not like we can really pinpoint where it’s coming from,” Ladouceur said.

The management plan for asbestos at Meadowbank also includes a medical surveillance program for workers involved in jobs which may bring them into contact with asbestos.

That includes medical examinations such as pulmonary function testing and respirator fit testing.

Workers also receive information sessions about asbestos, Ladouceur said.

Any asbestos that’s found is “disposed in a proper environmentally-friendly way,” he said.

Asbestos has been linked to:

• asbestosis, where the asbestos fibres scar and damage the lungs;

• lung cancer related to the degree of asbestosis in the lungs;

• mesothelioma, a cancer of the lung’s lining, and,

• cancer of the gastrointestinal tract and larynx.

 

www.nunatsiaqonline.ca